Investigation: Chinese bot network is amplifying Russian disinformation about the US election
Videos claiming election fraud in the final hours of the US election, exhibiting multiple indicators of connections to “Operation Overload”
Banner: Watermarked screenshot of a fake MSNBC story featuring a falsified quote from FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Inauthentic videos on X emulating the FBI and news media in a manner consistent with the Russian disinformation campaign known as Operation Overload are seeking to undermine the integrity of the 2024 US election. Although the content appears to be Russian in origin, they were amplified by a Chinese bot network, suggesting functional overlap or tacit cooperation between Russian and Chinese adjacent actors in an attempt to leverage each other’s strengths.
X accounts with no prior posting history posted manipulated videos on November 4-5, 2024, the final two days of the US general election. These videos amplified disinformation narratives alleging rigged votes, destroyed ballots, malfunctioning machines, and dead voters, with some suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris benefited from these supposed instances of election fraud. The operation edited the videos to appear as if they had been produced by the FBI and national news outlets, as they featured the logo of the FBI and copied the familiar graphics of CBS and MSNBC. The narration appears to be voiced by AI, while one video includes a possibly AI-generated fake audio recording of FBI director Christopher Wray purportedly telling WNYC radio that the FBI was unprepared and overwhelmed by voter fraud. The video’s narrator speaks in a stiff AI-like voice, stating “More than one thousand two hundred ballots were spoiled” by “miscreants.”
These posts highly resemble previous posts on X by the disinformation campaign Operation Overload, uncovered and attributed to Russia by Check First and Reset Tech. Also known as “Matryoshka,” Operation Overload previously targeted fact-checkers to distract from their investigations, instances of which the DFRLab previously documented during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Check First and Reset Tech also documented a tactic used by Operation Overload in which they tweet a disinformation video emulating a news publication coupled with a QR code. The fraudulent election posts observed by the DFRLab share the same tactic. Additional DFRLab research previously found the campaign promoted anti-Ukrainian narratives, including two similar posts about Ukraine posted as recently as October 31, 2024.
Although none of the videos of election fraud have yet to break 7,000 views, they still show signs of being inauthentically amplified. For example, one post had garnered 291 likes at the time of writing, but no replies or reposts. Other posts accrued more than 100 reposts and likes, but they appear to be nearly all accounts from a bot network.
The DFRLab analyzed the bots’ profiles and found that most of their posts promote crypto schemes. Although this bot network appears to be posting election content using tactics that match Russia’s Operation Overload, many of its influence posts are specifically pro-China. For example, the DFRLab found that this network is also tied to a Chinese influence campaign targeting the Philippines, having amplified a deepfake video of Filipino president Bongbong Marcos taking drugs, and promoted an image of a scholar in China, Anthony Carty, defending China’s claim over the South China Sea. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute attributed both maneuvers as originating from a covert Chinese campaign.
This bot network also recently amplified narratives about Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), who is running for re-election. This is the latest example of China attempting to influence down-ballot voting in the 2024 US election.
This network also reposted advertisements promoting inauthentic amplification services in Chinese, further signifying the Chinese origin of this network. The DFRLab previously documented how Chinese bot amplification networks on X operate with proprietary automation tools.
Taken together, the promotion of fraudulent election disinformation in the manner of Operation Overload by a Chinese bot network suggests potential cooperation between entities aligned with these two actors to implement malign influence operations. At present there is no evidence of the campaign being coordinated jointly by the Russian and Chinese governments, however.
Cite this case study:
“Investigation: Chinese bot network is amplifying Russian disinformation about the US election,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), November 5, 2024,
